Overview

With its 5.5-inch screen the iPhone 8 Plus is a big phone, but it’s more than just a re-badged iPhone 7 Plus.

And the screen is perhaps one of the most important changes, as while it’s a 1080 x 1920 display with a pixel density of 401 pixels per inch, it sports True Tone, which very cleverly lets it automatically detect the ambient light and adjust the white balance to suit.

The upshot is that it’s just as big and crisp as ever, but better in subtle yet important ways.

And these thoughtful improvements run right through the iPhone 8 Plus. Its design for example looks familiar, but the materials are actually quite different, as it sports a shiny glass back – which is the biggest design change Apple has made in years, at least this side of the iPhone X.

That’s paired with a slim metal frame for a stylish, typically Apple look, complete with the Touch ID fingerprint scanner and home button beneath the screen.

The iPhone 8 Plus is built to last too, thanks to toughened glass on the front and back and IP67 rated waterproofing, meaning it can be submerged up to 1 metre deep in water for up to 30 minutes.

And that new glass back is there for more than just aesthetics, as it also enables wireless charging, so you no longer have to plug your phone in. You shouldn’t have to charge it too often either, as it’s got a long-lasting battery that can survive a 14 hours movie marathon.

Of course, there’s also a whole heap of power here, with a new six-core A11 Bionic chipset at the beating heart of the iPhone 8 Plus, which is up to 70% faster than the iPhone 7’s chipset, as well as including a 30% faster GPU.

That power enables cutting edge augmented reality experiences like you’ve never seen on a phone before.

The iPhone 8 Plus also has an improved camera, with a 12MP dual-lens snapper allowing for both optical zoom and bokeh effects (blurring the background and emphasising the foreground in shots).

It also sports a large lens opening and a quad-LED flash, for great low-light performance and can record 4K video at up to 60fps.

Rounding out this remarkable array of specs there’s a 7MP front-facing camera, iOS 11 on board and vastly improved speakers, which are 25% louder than the previous model.